Oil Exploration

Mercator Lines, is planning to expand its business portfolio by foraying into the offshore oil exploration sector.
The company is looking for global partners to form a consortium to bid for Indian offshore blocks under the forthcoming round of NELP bids, apart from overseas blocks, including some of the South East Asian and Arabian Gulf blocks.
It is in talks with a few European companies, sources said.
Mercator Lines, which has forayed into offshore support services and is in the process of acquiring a $180m drilling rig, is aiming at forward integration by getting into the exploration business, which would also give it a captive market for its fleet of rigs and other offshore assets.
The company's foray into the oil exploration segment will be spearheaded by its subsidiary, Mercator Oil and Gas Ltd (MOGL).
The subsidiary had earlier initiated a foray into offshore segment by tying up with Gujarat State Petroleum Co, but the move did not result in anything concrete.
Apart from offshore exploration, Mercator also has plans to get into offshore construction, including construction of platforms and pipelines, the sources said.
Source: Moneycontrol.com

The China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) will invest $12.5b in gas and oil exploration in the next five years, CRI reported.
By 2010, more than 50 new gas and oil fields of CNOOC Limited will be completed and put into production. The new fields, 24 of which are under construction and 13 under development assessment, are mainly located in East China's Bohai Sea, the Pearl River estuary and the Beibu Gulf in the South China Sea

Greenpeace won its bid to delay oil exploration in the north Atlantic when a judge ruled the British government was failing to apply a European Commission environmental directive in allocating licenses.
The government is considering an appeal against the judgment on the basis that it is not taking into account the Commission's Habitats Directive in issuing exploration licenses. A spokesman said the government had been planning to issue new licenses in its 19th round early in 2000

Shell is planning to begin its Beaufort Sea oil exploration this summer, a state official said.
The initial work will involve excavating "well cellars" from below the sea floor. The cellars, also known as glory holes, protect well equipment such as blowout preventers from ice scouring.
Shell plans to start excavations in August and work only during open-water seasons -- before the ice comes in, he said.
The company has acquired one drill rig, the Kullu

Several of the world's largest oil companies hope to tap into possible offshore oil and gas reserves as Greenland opened a new round of concessions for exploration licenses in the fragile Arctic region. Eyes of an oil-thirsty world have turned to the shores of the semiautonomous Danish territory amid rising fuel prices, Mideast instability and concerns over future supplies. The Greenland government hopes to make big gains from any reserves found in its icy waters

According to a June 25 report on livemint.com, India’s biggest oil exploration company, the state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd (ONGC), is expected to name within a week the winner of a tender to build 12 ships that will support its oil drilling operations. It was reported that Pipavav Shipyard Ltd, India’s newest private sector shipbuilder, has submitted the lowest bid. However, the winner will not be named ahead of a formal announcement by ONGC.

According to a Financial Times report, top oil executives recently rejected allegations by some lawmakers that the oil industry was making record profits at the expense of US consumers, emphasizing the high level of investment the companies make to ensure supply and the limitations that have been set by Washington on oil exploration and development within the US.
ExxonMobil executives met with lawmakers at a rare joint hearing of the energy and commerce committees

The Russian government has reportedly denied permission for the Greenpeace icebreaker Arctic Sunrise to enter the increasingly busy Northern Sea Route (NSR), despite the ship having fulfilled all the requirements for such an entry.
Greenpeace International beleives the decision is an attempt to prevent it from exposing the activities of Russian state-owned oil company Rosneft. Multiple vessels contracted by Rosneft and U.S

The 285-ft U.S.-chartered oil exploration ship 'Teknik Perdana' seized by the Venezuelan navy in Caribbean waters disputed with neighbouring Guyana was escorted into port at Venezuela's Margarita Island on Sunday, reports AP.
Quoting Venezuelan authorities, AP said the ship's 36 crew members, including five U.S. citizens and two Brazilians, would be held on board while an investigation continued.
AP note that Adm. Angel Belisario Martinez told local station Union Radio that the research ship

Danish shipping and oil group A.P. Moller-Maersk's third-quarter net profit beat expectations, boosted by a strong performance at its container shipping business Maersk Line.
Net profit rose 25 percent to $1.5 billion compared with the same period last year, Maersk said on Tuesday, beating an average forecast of $1.38 billion in a Reuters poll of analysts.
It stuck to its forecast for an underlying profit for the full year of around $4

Indonesia wants to send hundreds of fishermen to the Natuna Islands to assert its sovereignty over nearby areas of the South China Sea to which China says it also has claims.
President Joko Widodo has launched an unprecedented campaign to bolster fishing

The ocean has gotten noisier for decades, with man-made racket from oil drilling, shipping and construction linked to signs of stress in marine life that include beached whales and baby crabs with scrambled navigational signals.
The United States aims to change that as a federal agency prepares

International participants at a high-level conference on the world's oceans pledged more than $5.3 billion for conservation and designated vast areas as protected waters, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday.
More than 90 countries took part in the two-day conference

Industry analyst and environmental consultant Dagmar Schmidt Etkin, PhD, takes a hard look at a rapidly shifting operational landscape in the Arctic. Always an honest broker of information, Etkin tells it like it is.
Oil spill risk is present anywhere that oil is present in

As Shell retreats from the Arctic, the Italian oil giant Eni is making final preparations for its own oil exploration venture in the Norwegian Arctic, reports the Guardian.
Eni has vowed to press ahead with oil production - a $5.5bn (£3.6bn) project - in the Norwegian Arctic

Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company Ltd (SNEPCo) announced the start-up of production from the Bonga Phase 3 project.
Bonga Phase 3 is an expansion of the Bonga Main development, with peak production expected to be some 50,000 barrels of oil equivalent, Shell said

TRIYARDS Holdings Limited (TRIYARDS or the Group) reported a strong finish for the financial year ended 31 August 2015 (FY15) with a 59% year-on-year jump in net attributable profit (PATMI) to US$8.4 million in the fourth quarter, driven mainly by liftboat construction.

The principal difficulty for Arctic offshore drilling right now, according to oil industry think tank, is economic. The companies may be back for another try at Arctic offshore drilling, in U.S. waters or elsewhere, if economic conditions change, reports AP.

Norwegian oil major Statoil said on Tuesday it will pull out of Alaska's Chukchi Sea, just weeks after Royal Dutch Shell abandoned the treacherous waters there after spending billions on oil exploration work.
The latest pullback comes as oil companies slash spending on expensive offshore

Three workers were killed and at least seven injured when a fire broke out on a Pemex oil processing platform in the Gulf of Mexico, but the latest in a string of incidents is now under control, the Mexican oil giant said via Twitter on Sunday.

Two of the major British players in Falkland Islands offshore oil development, Premier Oil and Rockhopper Exploration, cancelled a joint venture contract with Ocean Rig UDW.
In June 2014, the companies entered into a contract with Ocean Rig for the provision of the Eirik Raude for

BAE Systems delivered its fourth and final of series platform support vessel (PSV) to Jackson Offshore Operators, LLC, completing a four-ship program that began in 2012. Motor Vessel Squall joins three other vessels built by BAE Systems’ Jacksonville, Florida, shipyard to support U.S

Indian shipping trade union the National Union of Seafarers of India (NUSI) has asked the Indian Ministry of Shipping for financial help toward the training of maritime workforce in oil exploration activities.
The union’s General Secretary, Abdulgani Serang

Russian oil producer Rosneft's Vietnamese subsidiary has started drilling an exploration well off the south coast of Vietnam, it said on Wednesday.
It is Rosneft's first individual international offshore drilling project as an operator, Russia's largest oil producer said in a statement.

Greece will conclude the evaluation of deep-sea oil and gas exploration bids in the coming weeks and will name the preferred bidders soon after, its energy minister said on Friday, as the country seeks to tap into its limited oil reserves.